Thanks
to Twitter, angry bitter disgruntled people now have a place to take
pot shots at everybody from the safety of their mother’s basement. The
hate is starting to trump even the narcissism. There will probably be
40,000 tweets ripping me because of this post.
By the way, moderating comments has worked out better than I expected. I can moderate over my phone. So one click from anywhere and trolls are rejected without me even reading their stupid nonsense. I see the name, CLICK, gone. It's a beautiful thing. But I digress...
Twitter can be a great forum. For
comedy writers it’s a chance to toss off your one-liners and have them
heard (or at least read). Some of my best stuff has been wasted on
waiters and strangers in line. Now my best stuff can be wasted on
strangers on line. (I enthusiastically invite you to follow me and be one of them.)
But Twitter can also be a troll’s
paradise. I’ve noticed that all of the national sportscasters calling
these NFL playoffs have been absolutely pummeled by members of this
social network. Death by a thousand tweets. The announcers
are stupid, they’re biased, they’re too
old, their ties are an affront to society. Yikes! The truth is
they’re not biased, they’re under a lot of pressure, and producers often
pick out their ties for them.
So it got me to thinkin’. What if
Twitter existed during the time of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address?
I imagine this is the kind of stuff we'd see.
@lunkhead – I’m at Gettysburg Address w/ 67 others.
@dissgrntled – Shit! Linken is tall!
@shorty – Who WANTS to see him?
@mauron -- You are fucking hilarious dude! RT @shorty – Who WANTS to see him?
@loserboy4 – Is that a beard or a beaver on his chin?
@lunkhead – HA! RT@zippy – Abe’s making a pubic appearance.
@lunkhead – Talk louder pussy chin! I can’t HEAR YOU!!!
@shorty – Who WANTS to hear you?
@zippy – 4score + 7years. What the fuck is that?
@bobballooobobballoo – Math???? In a MF’ing speech?
@zippy – How much is 4score +7years?
@mauron – 150
@zippy – Choke on your beard, dickwad!
@lunkhead – Or can shave.
@bobballooobobballoo – Where’s his wife? I hear she’s hot.
@dissgrntled – She’s a whore.
@mauron – This guy is so LAME. He just said the ground is hollow. Really? Then how come we’re not all falling in?
@shorty – The missing Link-n.
@dyspeptic – Yeah. We want more!
Trolling is bad, and the negative shots without justification are terrible, but mostly because they get lumped in with all the legitimate criticism that the networks should take seriously.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that trolling is bad there are many legitimate criticisms of the NFL broadcasters last weekend especially the FOX crew. Not so much in bias as just simple lack of knowledge of the teams playing. It seems that the number 1 broadcasting teams are not as focused on actually preparing as the other team. For example, it is clear that a guy like Ian Eagle is well prepared and knowledgeable about teams he may have seen once or twice a year, but Joe Buck doesn't even seem to try anymore. He said that last week that "Russell Wilson doesn't have much experience playing from behind" which it only would have taken a bit of research to see the team came back more than a couple times this year, and that isn't even to mention last year's NFC championship game.
I know it is hard to talk for three hours, and I will give the guys a break generally, but they have a job that many of us would love to have, and when you see a guy who happens to be the son of great broadcaster, seem like he is mailing it in, well I can see where people would be upset.
In baseball it is similar but the dislike comes from a generational difference. The old guard barely acknowledges the changing understanding of the game and even rails against it. Adherence to stats like batting average and RBIs when clearly the successful teams have even moved beyond it, and attitudes against sabermetric thinking. The biggest thing I hate about many baseball announcers is when they use an example stat like "batting average against lefties on sunny days in August" as evidence of how silly advanced stats are, when that is exactly the type of stats that sabermetricians want to see eliminated.
Announcers are out of touch with today's younger, smarter, and more deeply thinking audience, and that is why they get so much backlash. The average fan knows more about sports today and they not only watch sports to be entertained but to think. This isn't just true about sports as we talk about here with TV, people are watching smarter and more intellectually engaging shows. So when we get announcers who are less prepared than we are to watch the games, it produces a bad broadcast.
So while you funny joke fires back at the dumb people who criticize without thought, there are others out there who see a real issue with sports broadcasting. If you're going to send out unprepared broadcasters to present the game then expect people to fire back.
I've never been on Twitter and I got off Facebook a few years ago, mainly because I found out I didn't want to know the spur of the moment, unfiltered thoughts of people I knew. People just seem to feel way more free on Twitter to release that (rightfully) hidden inner monologue than they ever would feel in real life. Finding out your delightful niece was actually a raging homophobe, or that a friend was one of those "well, of course it's the Jews' fault" type of guys, convinced me that life is better when you don't know every thought of the people close to you, let alone the raging masses of basement dwellers.
ReplyDeleteJust like Youtube, puts the ugliest part of the id into the driver's seat. LOL 27 IDIOTS HATED THIS POST
ReplyDelete"Ape Lincoln" - "The missing Link-in" -- Ken, those two lines were absolutely brilliant. Made me laugh out loud and spill some coffee.
ReplyDelete@realDonaldTrump I wouldn't give you five bucks for this guy, even if they put his picture on the money.
ReplyDeleteLaughing out loud this morning, and I needed it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSo you've basically just told everyone that if they want you to read it, use a name that has recently gotten through moderation. It might not get posted, but you'll read it.
ReplyDeleteAh, you have a Civil War historian lurking here. So I can tell you that a lot of the anti-Lincoln editorials read all too much like those tweets.
ReplyDeleteIronically, the speech didn't go over big at the time. But that day, the main speaker was Edward Everett, a longtime scholar and diplomat known for his classical allusions. He talked for two hours, which was the approximate time that kind of speech would go then. He later wrote to Lincoln that he wished he could have said so well in his two hours what Lincoln conveyed in his two minutes. Everett knew he was in the presence of greatness.
I never understood the point of Twitter: it's sole purpose is already a basic function on Facebook, Myspace, and other social outlets, so what's the point? Same goes for tumblr, it's essentially Twitter for pictures, which again, is already a basic function on Facebook; not to mention there's already image-hosting sites out there (Photobucket, Imagebam, et al).
ReplyDeleteVery funny idea! Tweets from great events in history?
ReplyDelete@realDonaldTrump - This guy's beard looks like something my combover took a dump on his neck
ReplyDeleteThis is better than SNL.
ReplyDelete@joseph Scarbrough I use both, but I use Facebook for personal contact and twitter to air my thoughts and to hear others.
ReplyDeleteBob Newhart did a great take on the Gettysburg Address back in the 60s in his 'Button Down Mind'. I can't seem to readily find it to post here but like much of Newhart's stuff -quite funny.
ReplyDelete"What are you wearing, Abe? ....A sort of cardigan?!"
Delete@realDonaldTrump RT "@jwboothactor Trump is the man to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain" Thanks for the support, JW! Love theater!
ReplyDelete@ Joseph Scarbrough: At least part of the appeal of tumblr is that the site is cool with its members posting gigs and gigs and gigs (and gigs) of porn.
ReplyDelete@realDonaldTrump - I could manage the Yankees a thousand times better than this guy and George Steinbrenner put together.
ReplyDelete@SarahP BREAKdown of the American Family = BLAME LINKUN!!!
ReplyDeleteHe claims to have FOUR fathers! @legscrossed @chastitybeltsareus
@sparetherod @iwillnotshutup @liberalsarecommies @allofthem
This is right up there with the Gettysburg PowerPoint.
ReplyDeleteThere's actually a version of the Gettysburg Address as delivered by Trump. Google it.
ReplyDeleteThis was a FANTASTIC post, Ken! Thank you, as a member of the "internet generation" who hates everything about that appellation, this made me laugh a rueful laugh. Always love reading your blog, and thanks for your posts day in day out, but this one FTW, as the half-Twits say.
ReplyDeleteLoved this Ken..but I have a writer's question....
ReplyDeleteI recall years ago, Johnny Carson said the one thing you can't joke about is Lincoln's Assassination...I watched a rerun of Carson the other night..and he was outright booed over a joke about it. I love Lincoln but am perplexed as to why that's the "third rail" of comedy. I'm sure modern edgy comics could get away with it but would a sitcom writer include a joke about that event(minus Seth Mcfarlane)? Has enough time passed?